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About Keizertimes. (Salem, Or.) 1979-current | View Entire Issue (June 4, 2021)
JUNE 4, 2021, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5 City will get to plan for fewer new residents By ERIC A. HOWALD Of the Keizertimes Keizer may not need to accommodate nearly as many new residents in the coming decades. Two years ago, the city was asked to plan for nearly 10,000 new residents. New, tentative population esti- mates cut the forecast by more than half. Despite the radical change, some on the Keizer City Council and the Keizer Planning Commission urged the city to con- tinue confronting the housing challenges in the city. “I wouldn't want to take this as an opportunity to rest,” said Planning Commissioner Jeff rey Watson. “I think this makes the kind of strategies we were discuss- ing have even more impact. We should still talk about parking requirement reductions, smaller setbacks and increasing multi-use areas.” Mayor Cathy Clark said it was an opportunity for city leaders to dig into balancing residential and com- mercial-industrial needs in the city. “It puts us in a very unique position in terms of plan- ning and opportunity. We can take time to think about what we believe is going to create the most balanced city going forward,” Clark said. The population forecast for Keizer plummeted from 9,958 new residents by 2041 to 4,586 new residents. It means that Keizer only needs to plan for roughly 1,800 new dwelling units. Some of the increase will be absorbed with recent revisions to the city development code and state-imposed zoning changes, but Keizer will still need to fi nd space for about 200 new dwelling units. The forecast drop refl ects not only statewide trends, but global ones. Last year, birthrates in Oregon dropped below the rate of death, in part as a result of COVID-19, but it is expected to continue. Globally, according to a recent report by The New York Times, birthrates have fallen below the replacement rate of 2.1 children per family. Another factor is that there are fewer people moving within Oregon and to Oregon from other places. Much of the in-state population is remaining in place as they age. It is also the fi rst time Keizer has received a popula- tion forecast distinct from Salem’s; the two cities share an Urban Growth Boundary (UGB). Prior to this year, Keizer based its estimates on a percentage of the over- all expected growth within the UGB. Consultant Beth Goodman with ECONorthwest said Salem has a much larger supply of available land to accommodate growth without an overall expansion of the UGB, a process that can be both lengthy and costly. Stowaway tucks good moments into messy plot By TJ REID For the Keizertimes “Do not grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many, outweigh…” “The needs of the few.” “Or the one.” These words, part of the last conver- sation Spock and James Kirk ever had (or at least until Spock was resurrected one movie later), refl ect one of the many themes that are explored in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, a fi lm that some still consider the pinnacle of Star Trek cinema. Weighing the lives of the rest of the crew of the Enterprise against his own, our favorite half-Vulcan sacrifi ces himself in the highly radioactive core of the Enterprise’s warp drive and saves the day (no, I don’t feel bad for spoiling a nearly 40-year-old movie). Not satisfi ed with posing this question to only one crew, space decides to be a jerk and do the same thing decades later to the small cast of Netfl ix’s Stowaway, a fi lm that has some great dramatic and emotional moments but one that is also held back by asking the audience to willingly sus- pend far too much disbelief (as well as some pacing problems). I am pretty sure that it is not a spoiler to say that Stowaway has a stowaway in it. The plot is straightforward—a three-per- sons crew on its way to Mars make some tough decisions when an unexpected fourth member somehow fi nds his way aboard their already-launched ship. How do they keep everyone alive when the ship has a fi nite amount of air? Is it worth it to save one life if it risks the lives of Toni Collette, Daniel Dae Kim and Anna Kendrick tackle some tough questions in Netflix's Stowaway. Our reviewer says the story requires viewers to make too many leaps of faith, but there are worthy moments along the way. Submitted photo the other three? These are some interest- ing moral questions that Stowaway asks (think the runaway trolley problem but in space), and the dialogue and cast (which includes Anna Kendrick and Toni Collette) more than sell the drama and stakes of it all. It is a fi lm that is well-shot, well acted, and off ers a few moments of tension. The problem is that to get to these moments, the plot makes some down- right illogical leaps. The mere presence of the titular stowaway is ludicrous if one stops to think about the “how” for even a second, and I kept thinking that there was some exciting mystery that was Sam Goesch CLU, Agent Sam Goesch Ins Agcy Inc 3975 River Road North Keizer, OR 97303 Bus: 503-393-6252 Web: SamGoesch.com State Farm , Bloomington, IL (1211999) going to unfold… one that would lead to some clever ah-ha moments that would make his presence on the ship make sense. This is not the case. The guy is there, and the three astronauts and the audience just have to accept that so we can get to the tense parts. It is a lot to swallow and not at all helped by the fact that the shortage of air itself only makes sense if the people who made the ship were absurdly stupid. Normally these would be small annoyances, but when the entire plot depends on you ignoring basic logic you have a problem. And then the movie just kind of … ends. We never learn too much about who these characters are and the lives they had before they went to space, and it feels like a wasted opportunity. But despite these missteps, Stowaway is still a worthy time-fi ller that gets a lot more right than it gets wrong. For a Netfl ix original movie, that is a pleasant surprise. Stowaway is now available on Netfl ix.
